Silver Compounds
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag (Greek: άργυρος árguros, Latin: argentum, both from the Indo-European root *arg- for "grey" or "shining") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it possesses the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal. The metal occurs naturally in its pure, free form (native silver), as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining.
Silver has long been valued as a precious metal, and is used as an investment, to make ornaments, jewelry, high-value tableware, utensils (hence the term silverware), and currency coins. Today, silver metal is also used in electrical contacts and conductors, in mirrors and in catalysis of chemical reactions. Its compounds are used in photographic film, and dilute silver nitrate solutions and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides (oligodynamic effect). While many medical antimicrobial uses of silver have been supplanted by antibiotics, further research into clinical potential continues.
Read more about Silver Compounds: Characteristics, Isotopes, Compounds, Applications, History, Occurrence and Extraction, Price, Human Exposure and Consumption, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words silver and/or compounds:
“When I from black and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of Godlike lambs we joy,
Ill shade him from the heat till he can bear
To lean in joy upon our fathers knee;
And then Ill stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him, and he will then love me.”
—William Blake (17571827)
“We can come up with a working definition of life, which is what we did for the Viking mission to Mars. We said we could think in terms of a large molecule made up of carbon compounds that can replicate, or make copies of itself, and metabolize food and energy. So thats the thought: macrocolecule, metabolism, replication.”
—Cyril Ponnamperuma (b. 1923)